Nitu Ghanghas

Nitu Ghanghas

Nitu Ghanghas (नीतू घनघस) (born 19 October 2000) is an Indian boxer who is 2023 world champion in minimumweight category and a two-time world youth champion in light flyweight. She won the gold medal at the 2023 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships and 2022 Commonwealth Games in the minimumweight category.

Early Life

Nitu Ghanghas was born on 19 October 2000, in the Dhanana village of Haryana’s Bhiwani district. Her father, Jai Bhagwan, was an employee at the Haryana Rajya Sabha in Chandigarh. Her mother’s name is Mukesh Devi and Nitu has a younger brother named Akshit Kumar. According to Mukesh Devi, Nitu was a ‘naughty child’ and would often get into fights with her siblings and at school. Her father introduced Nitu to boxing to find a constructive way to channel the energy. Nitu Ghanghas started to formally train by the time she was 12 but she failed to make any inroads in the first couple of years. Frustrated by her lack of progress, Nitu Ghanghas decided to give up on the sport but her father intervened. Her father took a three-year-long unpaid leave from his job to help his daughter realize her dreams of becoming a boxer. He did some farming on a small stretch of land he owned and also took a loan of about six lakh rupees to take care of the costs. He also oversaw Nitu’s training and diet personally. During this period, Nitu Ghanghas was noticed by renowned coach Jagdish Singh, the founder of the renowned Bhiwani Boxing Club and one of the mentors of Vijender Singh. Nitu, a BA student at the Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, joined the Bhiwani Boxing Club and used to travel 40 km every day on her father’s scooter to train.

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The two-time youth gold medallist has made the cut for her maiden World Championships. This is her story. Driving from the national capital to Bhiwani provides a throwback of sorts. The yawning land patches where protesting farmers camped for 18 months lie buried under the relentless city traffic. The buzzing toll booths that doubled as police outposts, the pristine mustard fields on either side of NH9, the industrious women tending to the fields, the eager SUVs whizzing by. Moments pass in a ti

Commonwealth Games 2022

Nitu Ghanghas won the gold medal on her Commonwealth Games debut at Birmingham in the 45kg-48kg (minimum weight) category by beating the home favourite Demie-Jade with a score of 0-5 in her favour. She made sure that she punched her way through to make the Indian crowd celebrate in glory.

2023 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships

She becomes only 6th Indian boxer (male or female) to become World Champion after defeating Lutsaikhany Altantsetseg of Mongolia by 5-0 on 25th March 2023 in minimumweight category.

Gallery

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References

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